Alright, thanks for the suggestions everyone, but for my first save in FM18, I decided to stay with what I was familiar with while I learned the new features. So with that being said...I decided to start at Oxford City in the Vanarama South.
Here's our squad, we have no leaders...not sure how, but as you'll see, we also dont have the money for any new signees. I have developed a Senior Affiliate with Rothertam, but I can't quite figure out how to see who they have available for loan (if anyone can help with that, would be appreciated).
Here's our Team Report, no surprise..we're not great.
Rob Sinclair is by far our best player, and early on I was playing on the right wing in a 442, but over the last couple of games I tried playing him in the midfield since he is my best player and I have a good enough player to replace him on the right wing.
Here's our Friendly results. I cancelled the matches we had with higher reputation teams and replaced with with similar/smaller reputation teams in a bid to increase the team cohesion and moral. Our first 3 friendlies were just with our 442, I switched to a 4141 with Sinclair in DM for the next two games, and the last two games were with a 451 and 411 with Sinclair in the middle of the field in the 451 and as the AMC in the 4411. We did well with it one game, and then we barely drew for our last game. A pretty pathetic performance where we couldn't get the ball into the net. I think we hit the post 2 or 3 times and missed badly every other attempt.
As for finances, we started the season about 36K in debt, but with friendlies, arranging the senior affiliate (mostly this), and a jersey sponsorship deal (worth 10k over 2 years!), we've managed to be in the positive to start the year. Because of this, we've gone from a $0 transfer budget, to a 7K transfer budget. Still trying to understand the new scouting system so I can figure out who I want to spend some money on and where the team is weakest.
Now, the season begins...